Electronic apparatus and control method thereof

ABSTRACT

An electronic apparatus is provided. The electronic apparatus includes a camera, a storage, and a processor configured to store an image photographed by the camera and metadata of the image in the storage, the processor is further configured to identify whether first information related to the image is obtainable, based on the first information not being obtainable, generate metadata related to the first information based on second information, and store the generated metadata as metadata of the image.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S)

This application is based on and claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(a) of a Korean patent application Number 10-2018-0008141, filed onJan. 23, 2018, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, thedisclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

BACKGROUND 1. Field

The disclosure relates to an electronic apparatus and a controllingmethod thereof. More particularly, the disclosure relates to anelectronic apparatus capable of retrieving a desired image based on taginformation and a controlling method thereof.

2. Description of the Related Art

With the development of computer technology, a user can easily searchfor a desired content through a storage device such as a smartphone.Typically, the user searches for data by inputting a keyword related todata into a search field, or selecting one of keywords provided by asystem of a smartphone. For example, when data that the user wishes tofind is an image, the smartphone may perform image search based oninformation tagged to the image. The information tagged to the image maybe information on a shooting time, a shooting location, etc. of theimage. Recently, a technique for tagging recognition information of aspecific object or a specific person in an image to the image has beenwidely used.

Users need to retrieve and collect desired information, but a problemlies in that the users have to review large numbers of keywords forselecting the information, or it costs too much time to select theinformation out of a large amount of information provided as searchresults.

Particularly, some images without tagging information, for example,images without tagging information of a shooting location, a shootingtime, etc. are often missed in the search results.

In addition, large numbers of images provided as the search resultsaccording to the keyword input by the user make the user search for theinformation again with an additional keyword. Therefore, it is not easyfor the user to search for a desired image quickly and conveniently.

Accordingly, there has been a growing demand for a method for retrievingan image accurately without omission and a search interface that canquickly and conveniently categorize and screen search results.

The above information is presented as background information only toassist with an understanding of the disclosure. No determination hasbeen made, and no assertion is made, as to whether any of the abovemight be applicable as prior art with regard to the disclosure.

SUMMARY

Aspects of the disclosure are to address at least the above-mentionedproblems and/or disadvantages and to provide at least the advantagesdescribed below. Accordingly, an aspect of the disclosure is to providean electronic apparatus capable of providing a search interface forretrieving an image according to user's intention based on contextinformation of an image, and providing an image the user wants quicklyand conveniently, and a controlling method thereof.

In accordance with an aspect of the disclosure, an electronic apparatusis provided. The apparatus includes a camera, a storage, and a processorconfigured to store an image photographed by the camera and metadata ofthe image in the storage, wherein the processor is further configured toidentify whether first information related to the image is obtainable,based on the first information not being obtainable, generate metadatarelated to the first information based on second information, and storethe generated metadata as metadata of the image.

Additional aspects will be set forth in part in the description whichfollows and, in part, will be apparent from the description, or may belearned by practice of the presented embodiments.

The second information may include at least one other image photographedby the camera, wherein the processor is further configured to obtain themetadata related to the first information from metadata of the at leastone other image, and generate the metadata related to the firstinformation based on the obtained metadata.

The first information may include information related to a shootinglocation of the image, wherein the processor is further configured to,based on the metadata of the image, identify a shooting time of theimage, and based on the identified shooting time being betweenrespective shooting times of first and second images of which shootinglocations match each other, among the at least one other image, generatethe metadata related to the first information based on respectiveshooting locations of the first and second images.

The second information may include at least one of connectioninformation between the electronic apparatus and an access point (AP)and payment information at a store received from an external server.

The first information may include information related to a shootinglocation of the image, wherein the processor is further configured toretrieve at least one of a location of the AP and a location of thestore, and generate the metadata related to the first information basedon the retrieved at least one location.

The metadata may include at least one of a shooting location, a shootingtime of the image, and recognition data for a photographed object.

The processor may be further configured to, based on the metadata of theimage, identify a shooting time of the image, retrieve secondinformation obtained within a first threshold time based on the shootingtime of the image, and based on the metadata related to the firstinformation not being obtained from the retrieved second information,perform additional search for second information obtained within asecond threshold time exceeding the first threshold time.

The first threshold time and the second threshold time may be differentfrom each other based on a type of the second information.

In accordance with another aspect of the disclosure, an electronicapparatus is provided. The apparatus includes a display, an input unit,a storage, and a processor configured to display an interactiveinterface through the display, based on a query for retrieving an imagebeing received through the input unit, identify a first image includingmetadata which satisfies search criteria in the query from a pluralityof images stored in the storage, identify a second image photographedwithin a predetermined time based on a time when the first image isphotographed, or a second image photographed within a predetermineddistance based on a location where the first image is photographed amongimages without metadata related to the search criteria, and control thedisplay to display a search result including the identified first andsecond images.

The processor may be further configured to store the metadata whichsatisfies the search criteria as metadata of the identified secondimage.

The processor may be further configured to classify the identified firstand second images into a plurality of categories based on metadata ofthe identified first and second images, and control the display todisplay a query message for selecting the plurality of classifiedcategories.

In accordance with another aspect of the disclosure, a method isprovided. The method includes controlling an electronic apparatus, themethod including storing an image photographed by a camera and metadataof the image, identifying whether first information related to the imageis obtainable, based on the first information not being obtainable,generating metadata related to the first information based on secondinformation, and storing the generated metadata as metadata of the imageadditionally.

The second information may include at least one other image photographedby the camera, wherein the generating of the metadata includes obtainingthe metadata related to the first information from metadata of the atleast one other image, and based on the obtained metadata, generatingthe metadata related to the first information.

The first information may include information related to a shootinglocation of the image, wherein the generating of the metadata includesbased on the metadata of the image, identifying a shooting time of theimage, and based on the identified shooting time being betweenrespective shooting times of first and second images of which shootinglocations match each other, among the at least one other image,generating the metadata related to the first information based onrespective shooting locations of the first and second images.

The second information may include at least one of connectioninformation between the electronic apparatus and an access point (AP)and payment information at a store received from an external server.

The first information may include information related to a shootinglocation of the image, wherein the generating of the metadata includesretrieving at least one of a location of the AP and a location of thestore, and generating the metadata related to the first informationbased on the retrieved at least one location.

The metadata may include at least one of a shooting location, a shootingtime of the image, and recognition data for a photographed object.

The generating of the metadata may include, based on the metadata of theimage, identifying a shooting time of the image, retrieving secondinformation obtained within a first threshold time based on the shootingtime of the image, and based on the metadata related to the firstinformation not being obtained from the retrieved second information,performing additional search for second information obtained within asecond threshold time exceeding the first threshold time.

In accordance with another aspect of the disclosure, a method isprovided. The method includes controlling an electronic apparatus, themethod including displaying an interactive interface, receiving a queryfor retrieving an image, identifying a first image including metadatawhich satisfies search criteria in the query from a plurality ofpre-stored images, identifying a second image photographed within apredetermined time based on a time when the first image is photographed,or a second image photographed within a predetermined distance based ona location where the first image is photographed, among images withoutmetadata related to the search criteria, and displaying a search resultincluding the identified first and second images.

The method may further include storing the metadata which satisfies thesearch criteria as metadata of the identified second image.

The method may further include classifying the identifies first andsecond images into a plurality of categories based on metadata of theidentified first and second images, and displaying a query message forselecting the plurality of classifies categories.

According to the above-described various embodiments, a user canretrieve a desired image quickly and conveniently, and be provided withaccurate search results according to the user's search intention.

Other aspects, advantages, and salient features of the disclosure willbecome apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detaileddescription, which, taken in conjunction with the annexed drawings,discloses various embodiments of the disclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other aspects, features, and advantages of certainembodiments of the disclosure will be more apparent from the followingdescription taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, inwhich:

FIGS. 1A and 1B are views illustrating an issue generated by aconventional image retrieving method according to an embodiment of thedisclosure;

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram illustrating configuration of anelectronic apparatus according to an embodiment of the disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a schematic view to explain a metadata storage methodaccording to an embodiment of the disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a detailed view to explain a metadata storage method accordingto an embodiment of the disclosure;

FIG. 5 is a schematic block diagram illustrating configuration of anelectronic apparatus according to another embodiment of the disclosure;

FIGS. 6, 7, and 8 are views illustrating a search interface screenaccording to various embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 9 is a detailed block diagram illustrating configuration of anelectronic apparatus according to an embodiment of the disclosure;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart to explain a controlling method of an electronicapparatus according to an embodiment of the disclosure;

FIG. 11 is a flowchart to explain a controlling method of an electronicapparatus according to another embodiment of the disclosure; and

FIG. 12 is a flowchart to explain a method for providing a search resultof a search interface according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

Throughout the drawings, like reference numerals will be understood torefer to like parts, components, and structures.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following description with reference to the accompanying drawings isprovided to assist in a comprehensive understanding of variousembodiments of the disclosure as defined by the claims and theirequivalents. It includes various specific details to assist in thatunderstanding but these are to be regarded as merely exemplary.Accordingly, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize thatvarious changes and modifications of the various embodiments describedherein can be made without departing from the scope and spirit of thedisclosure. In addition, descriptions of well-known functions andconstructions may be omitted for clarity and conciseness.

The terms and words used in the following description and claims are notlimited to the bibliographical meanings, but, are merely used by theinventor to enable a clear and consistent understanding of thedisclosure. Accordingly, it should be apparent to those skilled in theart that the following description of various embodiments of thedisclosure is provided for illustration purpose only and not for thepurpose of limiting the disclosure as defined by the appended claims andtheir equivalents.

It is to be understood that the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the”include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.Thus, for example, reference to “a component surface” includes referenceto one or more of such surfaces.

The disclosure is not limited to an embodiment disclosed below and maybe implemented in various forms and the scope of the disclosure is notlimited to the following embodiments. In addition, all changes ormodifications derived from the meaning and scope of the claims and theirequivalents should be construed as being included within the scope ofthe disclosure. In the following description, the configuration which ispublicly known but irrelevant to the gist of the disclosure could beomitted.

The terms such as “first,” “second,” and so on may be used to describe avariety of elements, but the elements should not be limited by theseterms. The terms are used simply to distinguish one element from otherelements. The use of such ordinal numbers should not be construed aslimiting the meaning of the term. For example, the components associatedwith such an ordinal number should not be limited in the order of use,placement order, or the like. If necessary, each ordinal number may beused interchangeably.

The singular expression also includes the plural meaning as long as itdoes not differently mean in the context. In this specification, termssuch as ‘include’ and ‘have/has’ should be construed as designating thatthere are such features, numbers, operations, elements, components or acombination thereof in the specification, not to exclude the existenceor possibility of adding one or more of other features, numbers,operations, elements, components or a combination thereof.

In an embodiment, ‘a module’, ‘a unit’, or ‘a part’ perform at least onefunction or operation, and may be realized as hardware, such as aprocessor or integrated circuit, software that is executed by aprocessor, or a combination thereof. In addition, a plurality of‘modules’, a plurality of ‘units’, or a plurality of ‘parts’ may beintegrated into at least one module or chip and may be realized as atleast one processor except for ‘modules’, ‘units’ or ‘parts’ that shouldbe realized in a specific hardware.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the disclosure will be described in detailwith reference to the accompanying drawings so that those skilled in theart can easily carry out the disclosure. However, the disclosure may beembodied in many different forms and is not limited to the embodimentsdescribed herein. In order to clearly illustrate the disclosure in thedrawings, some of the elements that are not essential to the completeunderstanding of the disclosure are omitted for sharpness, and likereference numerals refer to like elements throughout the specification.

Hereinafter, the disclosure will be described in greater detail withreference to drawings attached herein.

FIGS. 1A and 1B are views illustrating an issue generated by aconventional image retrieving method according to an embodiment of thedisclosure.

Referring to FIGS. 1A and 1B, an image photographed by a camera (aphoto, a video, etc.) may store photographing-related information in ametadata format. For example, the photographed image may store specificadditional information such as a camera maker, a camera model, a shootdate time, an image size, an exposure time (a shutter speed), a shootprogram, a lens focal length, an aperture opening value (F-Number), etc.in a metadata format. Such metadata format is, and may be embodied as anEXchangable image file (EXIF) format used in a digital camera.

Examples of metadata may further include a shooting location of animage, recognition data for an object in the image, and user generationdata.

The shooting location of the image may be received from a locationdetection sensor such as global positioning system (GPS) throughsatellite, or a place identified by recognizing an object in the image.The recognition data for the object in the image may refer to data inwhich various objects such as a person, an animal, a building, etc. arerecognized.

For example, when a contact application includes information thatmatches ‘cheolsu’ with the face image of ‘cheolsu’, and the cheolsu'sface is recognized from the photographed image, recognition data ofcheolsu may be stored as metadata of the photographed image. Inaddition, user generation data in which the user directly matches‘cheolsu’ with the face image of ‘cheolsu’ in the photographed image maybe stored as the metadata of the photographed image. The user generationdata may be data manually created by the user, and may include text,etc. created by the user to describe the photographed image.

Referring to FIG. 1A, if an image is photographed by an electronicapparatus including a digital camera (e.g., a portable camera, asmartphone, a PDA, a tablet PC, a note book, etc.), a shooting location21, a shooting date/time 22, object recognition data 23, user generationdata 24, etc. may be stored as metadata 20 of a photographed image 10.

By using metadata stored together with the photographed image, a usermay retrieve the image. For example, when the user inputs information onan image (a shooting, a shooting location, etc.) to be retrieved into asearch interface provided by an electronic apparatus as a searchkeyword, the electronic apparatus may analyze the metadata in thepre-stored image, and provide an image having the metadata matched withthe search keyword as a search result.

For example, when the user inputs a command “please find a photo withcheolsu last summer” into an interactive search interface provided by anelectronic apparatus, an image having a shooting date and objectrecognition data matched with keywords such as “last summer” and“cheolsu” as metadata may be displayed as a research result. In thiscase, a period for summer may be set in advance. For example, if it isset that June to August belongs to summer, an image which wasphotographed between June and August, and includes recognition data forthe face of cheolsu may be selected.

Meanwhile, specific metadata may be missing from metadata that isautomatically stored in the photographed image, or erroneous metadatamay be included in the photographed image. For example, such cases areconsidered, where an image is photographed in a state in which alocation detection sensor of an electronic apparatus is not operated(e.g., an off state), or an image is photographed in a state in whichthe location detection sensor is operated (e.g., an on state), butlocation information is not properly received from satellite. When thelocation detection sensor is not operated, metadata for the locationwhere the image is photographed may not be stored. In addition, sincethe location detection sensor such as the GPS traces the location basedon outdoor position, when an image is photographed at a place where itis difficult to communicate with satellite, such as inside the building,between tall buildings, etc., erroneous location information may bestored as metadata in the photographed image. In this case, a method forretrieving an image by using the automatically stored metadata has alimit in obtaining an accurate search result.

In a more specific example, referring to FIG. 1B, when searching for aspecific photo taken at the beach last year, the user may input aquestion including a clue related to an image to be retrieved such as“please find a photo taken at the beach last year” through a searchinterface provided by a search application executed by an electronicapparatus. In this case, an image may be retrieved based on two cluesspecifying time and location such as “last year” and “beach”, but as asearch result, an image including both metadata satisfying timeinformation “last year”, and metadata satisfying location information“beach” may be provided.

However, as shown in an image 30 of FIG. 1B, when recognition data foran object related to the beach, or metadata related to a shootinglocation, which is the beach, is not included in the image 30, the image30 may be omitted from the search result. Examples of the objectsrelated to the beach may include various objects such as sea, whitesand, shells, starfish, palm trees, etc. In addition, metadata of theshooting location which can be specified as the beach may includelocation data detected by the GPS sensor such as latitudes andlongitudes corresponding to Moldives beach, Copacabana beach, Boracaybeach, etc. Matching information between a generic name (or a placename) indicating a specific place and location data may be stored in anelectronic apparatus or received from an external server.

Referring to FIG. 1B, although the image 30 includes the metadatarelated to the shooting date/time, metadata used for identifying theshooting location as ‘beach’, for example, location data detected by theGPS sensor, or object recognition data for identifying the shootinglocation as ‘beach’ may not be included. Therefore, the image 30 may beexcluded from the search result.

Accordingly, the user may find it difficult to search for the image 30.

Therefore, the disclosure may provide a method for accurately proving animage desired by a user, even when specific metadata is missing from thephotographed image.

<Automatic Tagging Method of Metadata Based on Context>

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram illustrating configuration of anelectronic apparatus according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 2, an electronic apparatus 100 may be embodied asvarious electronic apparatuses such as PDA, PMP, smart phone, tablet PC,personal computer, notebook computer, wearable digital electronicdevice, etc.

The electronic apparatus 100 may include a camera 110, a storage 120,and a processor 130.

The camera 110 may photograph an image. Specifically, the camera 110 mayconvert an image of an object into an electrical signal, and thenconvert the electrical signal into a digital signal to store the digitalsignal in the storage 120.

The storage 120 may be configured to store the photographed image. Thestorage 120 may be embodied as various storage media including a harddisk drive (HDD), a solid state drive (SSD), a DRAM memory, an SRAMmemory, a FRAM memory, or a flash memory.

The processor 130 may be configured to control the overall operation ofthe electronic apparatus 100. To be specific, the processor 130 maystore the image photographed by the camera 110, and metadata of theimage in the storage 120. The metadata may be tagged to the image.

The processor 130 may identify whether first information related to animage is obtainable, when if not, generate metadata related to the firstinformation based on second information, and store the generatedmetadata as metadata of the image.

The first information may be information related to metadata which isnot included in the image.

The second information may refer to context at a time when an image isphotographed, and may include at least one other image photographed bythe camera 110, information on the operation executed by the electronicapparatus 100, information stored in the electronic apparatus 100, etc.such as connection information between the electronic apparatus 100 andan access point (AP), payment information at a store, which is receivedfrom an external server, etc.

According to an embodiment, as described above, when metadata related tothe shooting date time is included in the photographed image(hereinafter, referred to as a first image), but metadata related to theshooting location is not included in the photographed image, theprocessor 130, based on the metadata of the first image, may identifythe shooting time of the first image, and based on the shooting locationof at least one other image (hereafter, a second image) photographedwithin a predetermined period of time based on the identified shootingtime, generate metadata related to the shooting location of the firstimage.

The processor 130 may identify at least one second image photographedwithin a predetermined period of time before and after a time when thefirst image is photographed, and store metadata related to the shootinglocation in the identified second image in the photographed first image.

For example, when the first image was photographed at 3:00 pm on Aug.10, 2017, and the second image photographed within 30 minutes based on3:00 pm on Aug. 10, 2017, i.e. between 2:30 pm and 3:30 pm, is an imagephotographed near the Paris Eiffel Tower, it may be likely that thefirst image is also photographed near the Paris Eiffel Tower (at leastnot far from the Paris Eiffel Tower).

The processor 130 may obtain metadata related to the shooting locationof the second image (near the Paris Eiffel Tower), and store theobtained metadata as metadata of the first image. If there are aplurality of other images photographed from 2:30 pm to 3:30 pm, theshooting location of one of the plurality of other images may be storedas the metadata related to the shooting location of the first image. Inthis case, it is desirable that the shooting location of another imagephotographed at a point of time closest to a point of time when thefirst image is photographed is stored as the metadata related to theshooting location of the first image.

Particularly, when the shooting time of the first image is between theshooting times of the second and third images, in which the shootinglocations of the second and third images are matched with each other,the processor 130 may generate metadata related to the shooting locationof the first image based on respective shooting locations of the secondand third images.

For example, if the second and third images photographed at 2:50 PM and3:05 PM, respectively, include metadata associated with the sameshooting location (near the Eiffel Tower), it can be strongly identifiedthat the first image was photographed at 3:00 PM near the Eiffel Toweras well. Such embodiment will be described in detail with reference toFIGS. 3 and 4 below.

When it is identified that metadata related to the shooting location isnot included in the photographed image, the processor 130 may identifythe location of the electronic apparatus 100 at a time when the image isphotographed by using AP information connected to the electronicapparatus 100, and store the identified location as metadata related tothe shooting location of the photographed image. Various types ofwireless communication signals using such as 3G, LTE, Wibro, Wi-Fi, etc.may be provided to the electronic apparatus 100 through an AP mounted ateach region so that the electronic apparatus 100 may access a wirelessnetwork. The processor 130 may explore the location of AC based on therecord of the AP connected to the electronic apparatus 100 at the timewhen the image is photographed, and store the explored location of theAP as the metadata related to the shooting location of the photographedimage.

In addition, immediately after photographing an image, within apredetermined time, the processor 130 may identify whether metadatarelated to the shooting location is included in the image, and when itis identified that the metadata related to the shooting location is notincluded, the processor 130 may store the location of the AP, which isat a high level of signal intensity, among collected information ofneighboring APs, as the metadata related to the shooting location of thephotographed image.

The Wi-Fi based location tracking technology for identifying the currentlocation based on the AP nearest to the location to be identified suchas the Cell-ID is a well-known technique in the art. Therefore, thedetailed description of a method for identifying the location of theelectronic apparatus 100 by using the AP near the electronic apparatus100 will be omitted.

The processor 130 may identify the location of the electronic apparatus100 at a time when an image is photographed by using payment informationat a store within a predetermined time based on the time when the imageis photographed, and store the identified location as metadata relatedto the shooting location of the photographed image.

For example, when the user photographs an image and after 10 minutes,makes payment at the store by using a credit card, the processor 130 mayexplore or identify the store location by using information on thestore, which is included in payment-related information received from acredit card company, and identifies the explored or identified locationof the store as the location of the electronic apparatus 100 at the timewhen the image is photographed. The processor 130 may store theidentified location of the electronic apparatus 100 as metadata relatedto the shooting location of the photographed image.

The processor 130, based on metadata of the image, may identify theshooting time of the image, based on the identified shooting time of theimage, retrieve information obtained within a first threshold time, andwhen failing to obtain metadata which is not tagged to the image basedon the retrieved information, additionally retrieve information obtainedwithin a second threshold time exceeding the first threshold time. Forexample, if there is no information obtained within 30 minutes based on2:00 on Nov. 13, 2014 when the image was photographed, informationobtained within one hour may be additionally retrieved.

The first and second threshold times may vary depending on the type ofinformation obtained for generating metadata which cannot be obtainedfrom the photographed image. For example, for the connection informationof the AP, the user may likely to stay long in the region, so that thefirst and second threshold times may be set to 10 minutes and 20minutes, respectively. However, for the payment information at thestore, the user may likely to be soon out of the region, the first andsecond threshold times may be set to 5 minutes and 10 minutes,respectively.

Further, as described above, the technical idea of the disclosure can beextended not only when it is identified that there is metadata relatedto information which is not obtainable with respect to the photographedimage, but also when erroneous metadata is included in the image.

For example, when the first to third image are consecutivelyphotographed at an interval of 10 minutes, metadata related to theshooting locations of the first and third images may indicate a specificregion of Jeju Island, and metadata related to the shooting location ofthe second image may indicate a specific region of Busan. In this case,it can be identified that the metadata related to the shooting locationof the second image is not correct. The processor 130 may replace themetadata related to the shooting location of the second image with themetadata related to the shooting locations of the first and thirdimages.

According to another example, based on location information receivedfrom the GPS, metadata related to the shooting location of thephotographed image may be stored as a location corresponding to ‘myhome’. When payment information at a store 10 km away from my home isreceived from an external server 3 minutes after the shooting time ofthe photographed image, it is identified that the metadata related tothe photographed image is not correct. The processor 130 may replace thestored metadata related to the shooting location of the image asmetadata generated based on the location of the store where payment ismade.

FIG. 3 is a schematic view to explain a metadata storage methodaccording to an embodiment of the disclosure.

The storage 120 of the electronic apparatus 100 may store the first tofourth images 31 to 34 consecutively photographed, and each of theimages 31 to 34 may include metadata related to the shooting time. Theprocessor 130 may analyze each of the images 31 to 34, and store theanalyzed data as metadata related to each of the images 31 to 34. Themetadata stored in association with each of the images 31 to 34 mayinclude recognition data for an object in the image, and data for theshooting location identified from the recognition data.

For example, referring to FIG. 3, the first image 31, the second image32, and the fourth image 34 may include objects such as seashell,starfish, sea, ship, seagull, etc. that allows to identify that theshooting location is bathing beach, and the processor 130 may identifythe shooting locations of the images 31, 32, and 34 as the bathingbeach. The processor 130 may generate the “bathing beach” as metadatarelated to the shooting locations of the images 31, 32, and 34, andstore the generated metadata as the metadata of each of the images 31,32 and 34.

Accordingly, when a user searches for a photo taken at the bathing beachin the electronic apparatus 100 and inputs a keyword such as “bathingbeach”, or “sea” or “beach” related to the “bathing beach”, the images31, 32 and 34 including metadata indicating that the shooting locationis the “bathing beach” may be retrieved. The keyword related to thebathing beach such as “sea” or “beach” may be matched with the “bathingbeach”, and stored in the storage 120, or stored as metadata related tothe images 31, 32 and 34.

However, although a third image 33 in FIG. 3 is photographed at thebathing beach in the same manner as other images 31, 32, and 34, anobject that allows to identify the shooting location as sea may not beincluded. Therefore, although the processor 130 analyzes the third image33, metadata indicating that the shooting location of the third image 33is the bathing beach may not be generated.

In this case, the electronic apparatus 100 according to an embodiment ofthe disclosure may identify the shooting location of the third image 33based on metadata of shooting locations of the second image 32photographed immediately before (12:24 PM) the shooting time of thethird image 33 (12:31 PM), and the fourth image 34 photographedimmediately after (12:33 PM) the shooting time of the third image. Thesecond image 32 and the fourth image 34 will be referred to asneighboring photographed images for convenience of explanation.

The processor 130 may extract metadata related to the shooting locationsof neighboring photographed images 32 and 34, and when it is identifiedthat the neighboring photographing images 32 and 34 are bothphotographed at the bathing beach, the shooting location of the thirdimage 33 may be the bathing beach. Accordingly, the processor 130 maytag the bathing beach as the metadata related to the shooting locationof the third image 33.

Accordingly, without the object to identify that the shooting locationof the third image 33 is the bating beach, the user may be provided withthe third image 33 as an image search result matched with the keyword“bathing beach”.

FIG. 4 is a detailed view to explain a metadata storage method accordingto an embodiment of the disclosure.

Recently, a service for automatically generating and providing captiondescribing a photo entered into a computer has been introduced. As anexample, neural image caption (NIC) system of Google automaticallygenerates and provides text caption describing what the image is basedon machine learning.

The electronic apparatus 100 may receive caption describing each of thefirst to fourth images 31 to 34 from an external server that provides anautomatic caption generation service, or support an auto captiongeneration service by itself to generate caption. In the description ofFIG. 4, metadata will be referred to as tags for ease of explanation.

Referring to FIG. 4, according to the automatic caption generationservice, Captions such as “it's a body of water” for the first image 31,“it's a man and a woman standing on a beach and they seem” for thesecond image 32, “it's a couple of people posing for the camera and theyseem” for the third image 33, and “it's a sandy beach next to the ocean”for the fourth image 34 may be generated.

The processor 130 may generate a tag for each image by using thegenerated caption. For example, for the first image 31, keywordsassociated with “body of water”, such as “sky”, “beach”, “sea” and“shore” may be generated as tags. Similarly, for the second image 32,keywords “people”, “vacation”, “beach”, “sea”, “ceremony”, etc.associated with “man”, “woman”, “standing”, “beach”, etc. may begenerated as tags. For the third image 33, keywords “people”, “person”,“photography”, “family”, “portrait_photography”, etc. associated with“couple”, “people”, “posing for the camera”, etc. may be generated astags. For the fourth image 34, keywords “starfish”, “sand”, “seashell”,“beach”, “sea”, etc. associated with “sandy beach”, “ocean”, etc. may begenerated as tags.

The processor 130 may use tags generated in association with the firstto fourth images 31 to 34, and calculate similarity between the first tofourth images 31 to 34. The similarity may refer to not only thesimilarity between images, but the similarity between contexts at a timewhen each image is photographed. For example, although the photographedobjects are different, if the different objects are photographed at thesame place, the degree of similarity may be calculated to be higher thanthe case where the different objects are photographed at differentplaces.

The processor 130 may control images of which similarity is equal to orgreater than a predetermined threshold value, which are photographedwithin a predetermined period of time, to share tags according to thecalculated similarity.

For example, if a predetermined threshold value is equal to or greaterthan 0.5, the first image 31 and the second image 32 may beconsecutively photographed at a time interval of 1 minute, andsimilarity between tags automatically generated by caption may be equalto or greater than 0.5, the first and second images 31 and 32 may sharethe generated tags each other. Tags such as “people”, “vacation” and“ceremony” of the second image 32 may be stored in a hidden tag formatin the first image 31. Conversely, tags such as “sky” and “shore” of thefirst image 31 may be stored in a hidden tag format in the second image32.

The processor 130 may calculate the degree of similarity between thefirst to fourth images 31 to 34 by using respective tags of the first tofourth images 31 to 34. The degree of similarity between the first tofourth images 31 to 34 may be calculated based on the similarity mapbetween the tags automatically generated for each of the images 31 to34.

Accordingly, the similarity between the first image 31 and the secondimage 32 may be calculated as 0.81973, the similarity between the secondimage 32 and the third image 33 may be calculated as 0.63293, and thesimilarity between the third image 33 and the fourth image 34 may becalculated as 0.02938. Since the first image 31, the second image 32,and the fourth image 34 include a common tag such as “sea”, “beach”,etc., the similarity may be relatively high. However, since the thirdimage 33 and the fourth image 34 do not include a common tag, the degreeof similarity may be relatively low.

However, since the third image 33 is an image photographed at thebathing beach, similarity between the third image 33 and the images 31,32 and 34 may be significant. Therefore, a method for determiningsimilarity by using only the tag automatically generated through captionmay have a limit.

The processor 130 may modify the similarity based on a tag for theshooting time of each of the images 31 to 34. To be specific, the thirdimage 33 and the fourth image 34 may be photographed within apredetermined period time (e.g., 30 minutes) at a time interval of 2minutes. Accordingly, the processor 130 may identify that the thirdimage 33 is photographed at the same location as the fourth image 34,which is the bathing beach. The predetermined time may be various, forexample, within 10 minutes, or 20 minutes.

Referring to FIG. 4, based on the tag for the shooting time, thesimilarity between the third image 33 and the fourth image 34 may bemodified from 0.02938 to 0.6.

Accordingly, “people”, “vacation” and “ceremony” of the second image 32may be stored as hidden tags in the first image 31. The second image 32may store “sky” and “shore” of the first image 31, and “starfish” and“seashell” of the fourth image 34 as hidden tags. The third image 33 maystore “sky”, “beach”, “sea” and “shore” of the first image 31, and thefourth image 34 may store “starfish”, “sand”, and “seashell” as hiddentags. The fourth image 34 may store “vacation” and “ceremony” of thesecond image 32, and “people” of the third image 33 as hidden tags.

Hereinafter, a method for performing image search by using additionallystored metadata will be described in detail.

<Image Search Method Based on Metadata>

FIG. 5 is a schematic block diagram illustrating configuration of anelectronic apparatus according to another embodiment of the disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 5, an electronic apparatus 100′ according to anotherembodiment of the disclosure may further include an input unit 140 and adisplay 150. According to an embodiment, a camera 110 may not benecessarily included in the electronic apparatus 100′.

The input unit 140 may be configured to detect user interaction forcontrolling the overall operation of the electronic apparatus 100′ andreceive a user command. The input unit 140 may be embodied with a touchpanel as well as physical buttons.

The display 150 may be configured to provide a screen displayinginformation. In particular, the display 150 may display variousinformation under the control of the input unit 140. The display 150 maybe implemented as with liquid crystal display panel (LCD), organic lightemitting diodes (OLED), transparent display, or flexible display, but isnot limited thereto. In addition, a driving circuit, a backlight unit,and the like that can be implemented in the form of a-si TFT, lowtemperature poly silicon (LTPS) TFT, organic TFT (OTFT), etc. may beincluded in the display 150.

The display 150 may be embodied with a touch display. Since the touchdisplay receives a user input through a finger or a touch pen, the inputunit 140 may be needed. To be specific, the touch display may consist ofa display panel (not shown) for performing a display function on outputinformation output from the electronic apparatus 100′ and an inputsensing panel (not shown) for performing various input functions by auser.

The display panel may be embodied with Liquid LCD or OLED, andstructurally integrated with an input detection panel. The display panelmay display various operation states of the electronic apparatus 100′,menu states, application execution states, services, etc.

The input sensing panel may detect various inputs such as a single inputor a multi-touch input, a drag input, a writing input, a drawing input,etc. of a user using a finger, an electronic pen, etc. The input sensingpanel may be embodied with a single panel capable of both finger inputsensing and pen input sensing, or embodied with two panels such as atouch panel capable of finger input sensing and a pen recognition panelcapable of pen input sensing.

The processor 130 may display an interactive interface through thedisplay 150, and receive a query for retrieving an image from a userthrough the input unit 140.

The processor 130 may execute an application installed in the electronicapparatus 100′ and control the display 150 to display an interactivesearch interface provided by an application. The application may be anapplication for retrieving a content such as an image, etc. and mayprovide an interactive search interface for a back-and-forth dialogue.

FIG. 6 is a view illustrating a search interface screen according tovarious embodiments of the disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 6, when an application is executed, the processor 130may guide a user to input a search word by displaying a query 61 such as“which photo are you looking for” in a text box format. The user mayinput a query for retrieving an image such as “having coffee lastsummer” 62 to an input window displayed on a screen. The search criteriain the input query may be “summer”, “coffee”, etc. The processor 130 maydisplay the input query on the interactive interface, identify an imagewith metadata satisfying the search criteria such as “summer”, “coffee”,etc. from a plurality of images stored in the storage 120, and providethe image as a search result.

The processor 130 may provide the image with the metadata satisfying thesearch criteria as a first search result. For example, the processor 130may analyze metadata of the images stored in the storage 120, anddisplay an image photographed between June and August, which belong tosummer and is set in advance, and an image with object recognition data‘coffee’ as the first search result. The processor 130 may proceed withan additional query 63 before displaying the search result or whiledisplaying part of the search result in order to sort out the searchresult when the searched image is equal to or greater than apredetermined number.

The processor 130 may classify the images in the first search resultinto a plurality of categories based on metadata, and control thedisplay 150 to display a query message for selecting the classifiedcategory.

For example, the images in the first search result may be classifiedinto sub-categories according to the shooting year and the shootinglocation. Referring to FIG. 6, the processor 130 may perform theadditional query 63 such as “how many years ago, where does it happen”,and display a UI that is conveniently designed for the user to easilyselect the shooting year and the shooting location in a text box.

When the shooting time of the searched image is categorized by thesummer of 1988, the summer of 2002, the summer of 2015, etc., a UIindicating the categories of “1988”, “2002” and “2015” may be displayed.When the shooting location of the searched image is categorized by“Seoul”, “Suwon”, “Jeju Island”, etc., a UI indicating the categories of“Seoul”, “Suwon” and “Jeju Island” may be displayed. However, the UI maydisplay only a predetermined number of top-most images in descendingorder of the number of retrieved images. When a text box of theadditional query 63 is selected, a UI for selecting the shooting timeand the shooting location may be expanded, so that a number of optionsmay be provided. The processor 130 may display part of the firstresearch result alongside a UI for indicating a plurality of categories.

Accordingly, when the user memorizes only the shooting time, the usermay select a UI of one of “1988”, “2002”, and “2015”, and when the usermemorizes only the shooting location, the user may select a UI of one of“Seoul”, “Suwon”, and “Jeju Island”, to thereby narrow the range of thefirst search result. In other words, the user may select one of theshooting location and the shooting time to search for a desired image,so that the convenience may be enhanced.

The user may narrow the range of the first search result by inputting anadditional clue in an interactive format when the shooting location ofthe image is not displayed as a UI in the additional query 63, or searchis performed through voice recognition. Referring to FIG. 6, when theuser does not memorize the shooting year exactly, but memorizes theshooting location vaguely, it is possible to input an additional clue 64such as “I do not exactly remember when, but it seems like inGangwon-do”.

In the first search result, the processor 130 may further select animage having the metadata of the shooting image as “Gangwon-do”, andoutput the selected image as s second search result 65. When the outputsecond search result is smaller than a predetermined number, at leastone thumbnail of the retrieved images may be displayed together with amessage such as “Total OO photos found”. When the user selects thedisplayed search result 65, the search result 65 may be expanded and athumbnail of the entire image in the second search result 65 may bedisplayed. The user may select one of the retrieved images and performan additional operation using the retrieved images.

When the user is satisfied by the second search result 65 and desiresnot to perform additional search, the user may input a message 66 forterminating the search such as “good”. The processor 130 may display aquery message 67 on which additional task to perform on the imageprovided as the second research result 65.

When the user inputs “sharing” 68 as a response to the query, theprocessor 130 may display a UI for selecting an image to be shared ofthe search result 65, and a UI for selecting one to share the selectedimage. An additional UI for selecting a route for sharing the imageselected by the user with the one W may be displayed, and the processor130 may make it possible to share the selected image with the selectedone according to the route selected by the user. For example, theprocessor 130 may simply transmit the selected image to the selectedone, or upload the selected image to the Internet site provided througha social network, so that the user may view the uploaded image with theselected one.

Referring to FIG. 6, sharing is exemplified as an additional task, butexamples of the additional task may further include copying, editing,etc. of an image.

The processor 130 may additionally display an image photographed withina predetermined time based on a time when at least one of the images inthe second research result 65 is photographed, among images withoutmetadata related to the input search criteria, as a search result.

For example, an image without metadata related to the shooting location,among the images stored in the storage 120, may be an image withoutmetadata related to the input search criteria (Gangwon-do). When theimage in the second search result 65 is a first image, the processor 130may additionally retrieve and display an image photographed within apredetermined time (referred to as a second image) based on a time whenat least one of the first images is photographed, from the imageswithout metadata related to the shooting location among the imagesstored in the storage 120. In other words, it can be strongly identifiedthat the image photographed before or after 10 minutes or 20 minutesbased on the time when the first image photographed in Gangwon-do (asecond image) is photographed in Gangwon-do. Therefore, the metadatarelated to the shooting location of the first image may be used.

The user may be provided with a search result with minimized errors ofomission of the desired images.

The processor 130 may store the metadata satisfying the search criteria,that is, the place name ‘Gangwon-do’ or the location data of Gangwon-doas metadata related to the second image, and may control the display 150to display a search result including the first and second images.

FIGS. 7 and 8 are views illustrating a search interface screen accordingto various embodiments of the disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 7, the processor 130 may control the display 150 todisplay a query 71 on a point of time when an image is photographedthrough an interactive interface, and a user may input a text 72-1providing a broad clue such as “2˜3 years ago?” as a response to thequery 71. In this case, the processor 130 may provide an imagephotographed 2-3 years ago from the current date (date/month/year) as asearch result based on metadata related to a point of time when theimage stored in the storage 120 is photographed.

When the user wishes to modify the text input for search since the usercannot remember exactly, the user may cancel the image search based onthe input text, input a new text within a predetermined time, andrequest for the image search based on the newly input text. For example,the user may input a text 72-2 including “no” for cancelling thepreviously input text “2-3 years ago?” which is followed by “last year”that provides a clue for a new shooting time. The processor 130 mayignore the text 72-1 “2-3 years ago” and provide an image photographedlast year, among images stored in the storage 120, as a search result.

UIs 73-1 and 73-2 for deleting a text box may be displayed on one sideof the text box to which the user inputs the text, and the user maydelete the input text by selecting the UIs 73-1 and 73-2 and input newtext.

Referring to FIG. 7, the processor 130 may output a search result 74including thumbnail images of the searched images displayed along with amessage such as “photos found”.

FIG. 8 is a view illustrating a search interface screen for allowing auser to directly search for an image through a contents map according toanother embodiment of the disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 8, a contents map 81 for navigating an image may bedisplayed on one side of the interactive interface. The contents map 81has a form in which UIs representing a plurality of images stored in thestorage 120 are distributed in a cube. The cube may have a plurality ofaxes corresponding to respective metadata in the images, and the imagesmay be distributed close to or far from each other according to thesimilarity of the metadata.

For example, based on an axis corresponding to the shooting time, a UIof a first image photographed in July, 2007 may be closer to a UI of athird image photographed in January, 2008 than a UI of a second imagephotographed in January, 2003. However, when the first image isphotographed in Seoul, the second image is photographed in Gangwon-do,and the third image is photographed in Hukuoka, the UI of the firstimage may be closer to the UI of the second image than the UI of thethird image based on the axis corresponding to the shooting location.The user may rotate the contents map 81 by touching, adjust an angle atwhich the contents map 81 is displayed, and intuitively identify thecorrelation between images along respective axes.

When the user inputs search criteria for the shooting time and theshooting location such as “happy at the beach”, “two˜three years ago”,etc. through an input window 82, the processor 130 may reconstruct thecontents map 81 to include UIs of images including metadata satisfyingthe research criteria (UIs of the searched images), and UIs of imagessimilar to the searched images. As described above, the UIs of imagessimilar to the searched images may include UIs of images closelydistributed according to the similarity of metadata.

The axis corresponding to the shooting time and the axis correspondingto the shooting location of the contents map 81 to be reconstructed maybe scaled down depending on the shooting time and the shooting locationof the searched image, respectively.

The processor 130 may navigate the contents map 81 targeting UIs of thesearched images according to the search criteria input by the user whilereconstructing a contents map. By controlling the angle of the contentsmap 81 to bring the UIs of the searched images according to the searchcriteria input by the user to the center of the contents map 81, the UIsof the searched images may be enlarged and displayed. Referring to FIG.8, the UIs of the searched images may be displayed as thumbnail images83.

FIG. 9 is a detailed block diagram illustrating configuration of anelectronic apparatus according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 9, an electronic apparatus 100″ according to anotherembodiment of the disclosure may include a camera 110, a storage 120, aprocessor 130, an input unit 140, a display 150, a communicator 160, asensor 170, an audio processor 175, a video processor 180, and a userinterface 190. The repeated description of FIG. 2 will be omitted.

The communicator 160 may be configured to perform communication with aserver or an external device. The communicator 160 may communicate withthe server or the external device through various communication methodsusing radio frequency (RF) and infrared (IR) such as bluetooth (BT),Wi-Fi, Zigbee, NFC, etc., and may be provided with a communicationelement including at least one of a ZigBee communication element, a BTcommunication element, and a Wi-Fi communication element.

The communicator 160 may receive caption describing the photographedimage from an external server that provides an automatic captiongeneration service, or receives wireless communication signals usingvarious communication method such as 3G, LTE, Wibro, Wi-Fi, etc. throughthe neighboring AP. In addition, the communicator 160 may exchangeinformation with various external devices or servers, such as receivingpayment related information from a credit card company.

The sensor 170 may be configured to detect the current geographiclocation of the user. The sensor 170 may detect the current location ofthe user having an electronic apparatus 100″ by using a GPS signal, andinclude a GPS module for providing a map information service forneighboring areas based on the detected current location, navigationservice, etc.

The audio processor 175 may be configured to perform processing on audiodata. However, the audio data may be processed by an audio processingmodule stored in the storage 120.

The video processor 180 may be configured to perform various imageprocesses such as decoding, scaling, noise filtering, frame rateconversion, resolution conversion, etc. of a content. However, the videoprocessing may be performed by a video processing module stored in thestorage 120.

The user interface 190 may include a microphone (not shown) forreceiving a user command for voice recognition or identifying a user.

The processor 130 may control the overall operation of the electronicapparatus 100″.

Referring to FIG. 9, the processor 130 may include a ROM 131, a RAM 132,a CPU 133, a graphic processing unit (GPU) 134, and first to nthinterfaces 135-1 to 135-n. The ROM 131, the RAM 132, the CPU 133, theGPU 134, and first to nth interfaces 135-1 to 135-n may be connected toone another via a bus 136.

A command set, etc. for system botting may be stored in the ROM 131. TheCPU 133 may copy the various programs stored in the storage 120 to theRAM 132, execute the program copied to the RAM 132, and perform variousoperations.

The CPU 133 may access the storage 120 and perform booting by using anoperating system (O/S) stored in the storage 120. The CPU 133 mayperform various operations by using various programs, contents, data,etc. stored in the storage 120.

The GPU 134 may perform graphic processing. The GPU 134 may generate ascreen including various objects such as icons, images, texts, etc. byusing a calculation unit (not shown) and a rendering unit (not shown).The calculation unit may calculate attribute values such as coordinatevalues, shapes, sizes, colors, etc. of the objects according to thelayout of the screen. The rendering unit may generate screens of variouslayouts including objects based on the attribute values calculated bythe calculation unit.

The first to nth interfaces 135-1 to 135-n may be connected to variousconstituent elements described above. One of the interfaces may be anetwork interface connected to an external device through a network.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart to explain a controlling method of an electronicapparatus according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

A first image photographed by a camera, and metadata of the first imagemay be stored at operation S1010. Examples of the metadata may be ashooting location, a shooting time, recognition data for thephotographed object, etc.

It is identified whether first information related to the first image isobtainable at operation S1020.

When it is identified that the first information is not obtainable,based on second information, metadata related to the first informationmay be generated at operation S1030. The second image may include atleast one other image photographed by a camera. The second informationmay include connection information between an electronic apparatus andan AP, payment information at a store, etc.

The generated metadata may be additionally stored as the metadata of thefirst image at operation S1040. The metadata related to the firstinformation may be obtained from metadata of a second image, and basedon the obtained metadata, the metadata related to the first informationmay be generated. To be specific, when the first information is relatedto the shooting location of the first image, based on the metadata ofthe first image, the shooting time of the first image may be identified,and when the identified shooting time is between respective shootingtimes of third and fourth images matched with each other, of the secondimage, the metadata related to the first information may be generatedbased on the respective shooting locations of the third and fourthimages.

According to another embodiment, the metadata related to the firstinformation of the first image may be generated by using the searchedlocation of the AP based on the connection information of the APconnected to the electronic apparatus or the location of the storesearched based on the payment information at the store, which isreceived from the external server, and the generated metadata may bestored as the metadata related to the first image.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart to explain a controlling method of an electronicapparatus according to another embodiment of the disclosure.

An interactive interface may be displayed at operation S1110.

A query for retrieving an image may be received at operation S1120.

A first image including metadata satisfying search criteria in the querymay be identified from a plurality of pre-stored images at operationS1130.

A second image photographed within a predetermined time based on a timewhen the first image is photographed, or a second image photographedwithin a predetermined distance based on a location where the firstimage is photographed, among the images without metadata related to thesearch criteria may be identified at operation S1140. The metadatasatisfying the search criteria may be stored as metadata of theidentified second image.

A search result including the identified first and second images may bedisplayed at operation S1150. Based on the metadata of the identifiedfirst and second images, the identified first and second images may beclassified into a plurality of categories, and a query message forselecting the classified category may be displayed.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart to explain a method for providing a search resultof a search interface according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

An interactive interface for retrieving an image may be displayed on adisplay of an electronic apparatus. A user may input a query for a phototo be retrieved at operation S1210.

When the query is input, by using metadata in the stored photo, a searchresult candidate group matched with the input query criteria andsub-categories for narrowing the search result may be generated anddisplayed at operation S1220.

When the query is output as to whether or not the photo the user wishesto find is included in the search result, and if a positive feedback isreceived from the user at operation S1230:Y, a query for an additionaltask for the photo selected by the user from among the search resultsmay be output at operation S1240. If a negative feedback is receivedfrom the user at operation S1230:N, a query for the photo the userwishes to find may be output again.

As to the query for the additional task, if the user selects theadditional task at operation S1240:Y, the additional task such ascopying, moving, sharing, etc. may be further performed at operationS1250. If the user does not select the additional task at operationS1240:N, the additional task may not be performed, and the interactiveinterface may be terminated.

According to various embodiments, a user may search a desirable imagewith fewer clues more conveniently, and prevent an image to be searchedfrom being omitted from a search result.

A method for controlling an electronic apparatus according to variousembodiments may be embodied as a program and stored in various recordingmedium. In other words, a computer program processed by variousprocessor and executing various controlling method may be stored.

There is provided a non-transitory computer readable medium that storesa program performing storing an image photographed by a camera, andmetadata of the image, determining whether information related to theimage is obtainable, and based on the first information not beingobtainable, generating metadata related to the first information basedon second information, and additionally storing the generated metadataas the metadata of the image.

The non-transitory computer readable medium refers to a medium thatstores data semi-permanently rather than storing data for a very shorttime, such as a register, a cache, and a memory, and is readable by anapparatus. Specifically, the above-described various applications orprograms may be stored in a non-transitory computer readable medium suchas a compact disc (CD), a digital versatile disk (DVD), a hard disk, aBlu-ray disk, a universal serial bus (USB) memory stick, a memory card,and a read only memory (ROM), and may be provided.

While the disclosure has been shown and described with reference tovarious embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled inthe art that various changes in form and details may be made thereinwithout departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure as definedby the appended claims as well as equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. An electronic apparatus, comprising: a camera; astorage; and a processor configured to: store an image photographed bythe camera and metadata of the image in the storage, identify whetherfirst information related to the image is obtainable, based on the firstinformation not being obtainable, generate metadata related to the firstinformation based on second information, and store the generatedmetadata as metadata of the image.
 2. The electronic apparatus asclaimed in claim 1, wherein the second information comprises at leastone other image photographed by the camera, and wherein the processor isfurther configured to: obtain the metadata related to the firstinformation from metadata of the at least one other image, and generatethe metadata related to the first information based on the obtainedmetadata.
 3. The electronic apparatus as claimed in claim 2, wherein thefirst information comprises information related to a shooting locationof the image, and wherein the processor is further configured to: basedon the metadata of the image, identify a shooting time of the image, andbased on the identified shooting time being between respective shootingtimes of first and second images, the first and second images havingmatching shooting locations, among the at least one other image,generate the metadata related to the first information based onrespective shooting locations of the first and second images.
 4. Theelectronic apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the secondinformation comprises at least one of connection information between theelectronic apparatus and an access point (AP) or payment information ata store received from an external server.
 5. The electronic apparatus asclaimed in claim 4, wherein the first information comprises informationrelated to a shooting location of the image, and wherein the processoris further configured to: retrieve at least one of a location of the APor a location of the store, and generate the metadata related to thefirst information based on the retrieved at least one location.
 6. Theelectronic apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the metadatacomprises at least one of a shooting location, a shooting time of theimage, or recognition data for a photographed object.
 7. The electronicapparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the processor is furtherconfigured to: based on the metadata of the image, identify a shootingtime of the image, retrieve second information obtained within a firstthreshold time based on the shooting time of the image, and based on themetadata related to the first information not being obtained from theretrieved second information, perform an additional search for secondinformation obtained within a second threshold time exceeding the firstthreshold time.
 8. The electronic apparatus as claimed in claim 7,wherein the first threshold time and the second threshold time aredifferent from each other based on a type of the second information. 9.An electronic apparatus, comprising: a display; an input unit; astorage; and a processor configured to: display an interactive interfacethrough the display, based on a query for retrieving an image beingreceived through the input unit, identify a first image includingmetadata which satisfies search criteria in the query from a pluralityof images stored in the storage, identify a second image photographedwithin a predetermined time based on a time when the first image isphotographed, or a second image photographed within a predetermineddistance based on a location where the first image is photographed amongimages without metadata related to the search criteria, and control thedisplay to display a search result including the identified first andsecond images.
 10. The electronic apparatus as claimed in claim 9,wherein the processor is further configured to store the metadata whichsatisfies the search criteria as metadata of the identified secondimage.
 11. The electronic apparatus as claimed in claim 9, wherein theprocessor is further configured to: classify the identified first andsecond images into a plurality of categories based on metadata of theidentified first and second images, and control the display to display aquery message for selecting the plurality of classified categories. 12.A method for controlling an electronic apparatus, the method comprising:storing an image photographed by a camera and metadata of the image;identifying whether first information related to the image isobtainable; based on the first information not being obtainable,generating metadata related to the first information based on secondinformation; and storing the generated metadata as metadata of the imageadditionally.
 13. The method as claimed in claim 12, wherein the secondinformation comprises at least one other image photographed by thecamera, and wherein the generating of the metadata comprises: obtainingthe metadata related to the first information from metadata of the atleast one other image; and based on the obtained metadata, generatingthe metadata related to the first information.
 14. The method as claimedin claim 13, wherein the first information comprises information relatedto a shooting location of the image, and wherein the generating of themetadata comprises: based on the metadata of the image, identifying ashooting time of the image; and based on the identified shooting timebeing between respective shooting times of first and second images, thefirst and second images having matching shooting locations, among the atleast one other image, generating the metadata related to the firstinformation based on respective shooting locations of the first andsecond images.
 15. The method as claimed in claim 12, wherein the secondinformation comprises at least one of connection information between theelectronic apparatus and an access point (AP) or payment information ata store received from an external server.
 16. The method as claimed inclaim 15, wherein the first information comprises information related toa shooting location of the image, and wherein the generating of themetadata comprises: retrieving at least one of a location of the AP anda location of the store; and generating the metadata related to thefirst information based on the retrieved at least one location.
 17. Themethod as claimed in claim 12, wherein the metadata comprises at leastone of a shooting location, a shooting time of the image, or recognitiondata for a photographed object.
 18. The method as claimed in claim 12,wherein the generating of the metadata comprises: based on the metadataof the image, identifying a shooting time of the image, retrievingsecond information obtained within a first threshold time based on theshooting time of the image, and based on the metadata related to thefirst information not being obtained from the retrieved secondinformation, performing additional search for second informationobtained within a second threshold time exceeding the first thresholdtime.